Members of the public are being invited to pick the Weather Photographer of the Year 2019

Members of the public are being asked to vote for their favourite weather photo of the year – and the competition is jaw-droppingly strong.

The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS), in association with WeatherPro, has selected 24 finalists for this year’s Weather Photographer of the Year competition and are now asking the public to help pick the winner.

More than 5,700 photos were submitted in this year’s contest, showing weather phenomena from around the world, including clouds, lightning, rain, fog and snow.

Incredible: A lenticular cloud formation in the Alps captured by Iain Afshar

This dramatic image was taken by Jay Birmingham and shows a ferocious storm in Porthcawl, Wales

Electric: This entry, by Dennis Oswald, shows a ginormous supercell moving over farmland in Oklahoma

Heavenly: Gareth Mon Jones is in the running for the grand prize thanks to this amazing picture of a cloud inversion at dawn in Snowdonia

Dennis Schulze, chief meteorology officer at MeteoGroup, who was one of this year’s judges, said: ‘With so many high-quality and exciting photos submitted it was a tough choice we had to make.

‘The shortlisted images show the passion with which the photographers captured both rare and pretty common weather events. And many do not just show the weather event itself, but you can also feel the impact on our lives.’

Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, said: ‘The Royal Meteorological Society was overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of outstanding images submitted to the Weather Photographer of the Year competition this year, celebrating weather and climate in its many different forms.

Is this your favourite? This image was taken by Peng-Gang Fang and shows a stranded ship after a typhoon in Taiwan

A young woman braves the rain in Kyoto, Japan, in this mesmerising picture taken by Patrick Hochner

Maelstrom: Dan Portch has been shortlisted thanks to this eye-popping picture of Storm Erik hitting Newhaven

Blue-sky thinking: Elena Belozorova impressed the judges with this beautiful picture of a ‘fogbow’ in Croatia

Does this one spark an interest? This image is called Power of Lightning and was taken by Elena Salviai by Riomaggiore in Italy

Andrei Baskevich took this picture of the Northern Lights above snow-clad trees. He called it In Slow Dance

Vehicles race away from a monster supercell in New Mexico in this image by Stu Short

Scotney Castle in Kent looks fairy-tale fantastic in the early morning mist in this enchanting picture by Chris Brown

‘The photographs speak volumes about our obsession in the weather – capturing its beauty, its power and its fragility in the face of human activity.’

The winners of Weather Photographer of the Year 2019, Young Weather Photographer of the Year 2019, Public Favourite and the runners-up from each category will be announced at RMetS WeatherLive on October 19 at the Royal Statistical Society, London.

The event, On Cloud 9: Reading the Sky, will celebrate clouds and is the perfect opportunity for weather enthusiasts to learn more about our skies.

It will explore the beauty and importance of clouds, look at the history behind their naming, how artists grapple with capturing their grandeur and what clouds can tell us about future weather conditions.

The Weather Photographer of the Year exhibition will go on tour around the UK later this year.

To view the short-listed images and cast your vote visit www.photocrowd.com/wpoty-2019-voting/ and follow the instructions.

Does this look like a prize-winner? This image was taken through the window of a bus in Memphis by Christine Holt

Mohammad Moheimani’s picture, Flood, shows a road in northern Iran flooded by water on New Year’s Eve

Hypnotic: Brian Denton took this picture of the Thames Barrier in London on a rainy day

Monster storm: The Beast from the East snowstorm over Tunbridge Wells, in a drone photograph by Steve Baker

Atmospheric: A picture called Black Rock showing the New Brighton Lighthouse in the Wirral taken by Steve W Carr

Talented snapper Bingyin Sun took this photo, called Cinammon Rolls Cloud, which shows a windy evening in Iceland. And a UFO-style cloud formation

Kevin Juberg took this photo and, in an understandable move, called it Apocalyptic. It shows one of the world’s largest haboobs on record in Arizona

This eye-catching picture by Brian Bayliss shows a rare ‘snow roller’ in Wiltshire. It’s thought they are formed by wind picking up a chunk of snow – and rolling it along

These beach huts in the snow, in Southwold, Suffolk, were snapped by Lee Acaster